Ponds and Plants

I have a project awaiting me in Wales - restoring this sad pond in our yard - it's been left to its own devices for a year (note, NOT frozen as of Dec 5). It looks like two elephant footprints after a soaking rain!

What should I plant here? Eurasian milfoil? I hope to include sundews and bladderworts ...

It's interesting that the Law Society Property Information Form includes the following question about Japanese knotweed:

I took a look around when we visited, and wasn't able to spot any - if I subsequently find any, it will be attacked with vigor!

English Oak

 I'm having to start learning about plants native to England - Quercus robur, the English oak, is a spectacularly shaped tree that is an iconic part of the English countryside.

It's a long lived tree, and boasts the 'highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant' (Wikipedia)

These large, spreading trees are also known as the pedunculate oak

I'm looking forward to learning more about the different galls produced by the various insects that depend on these beauties.

Curiosities

When looking at buying a home in England/Wales, we discovered that British code for light switches in bathrooms and kitchens (where there are water sources) is different from the US. Light switches are required to be on a pull cord as an extra precaution against electrical conduction should a person have wet hands. 

We thought it was just in old-fashioned, outdated homes, but no, it's everywhere.

I've also learned that chips in England are what we call 'steak fries' in the U.S. and fries in England are what we call 'shoestring fries' (hope I got it right). 

Dale's pub meal of pie and chips

Also, what people in the U.K. regard as frigid weather, is balmy to Mainers (spot the Maine-iac in the photo below)

Country roads are so narrow (looking more like a driveway for a single home than a public road), and constricted by hedgerows as to make one feel as if you're on a luge course, with no way out till you get to the end (or an intersection).

And, unlike the U.S., the first ingredient listed in mayonnaise is rapeseed oil, NOT SOY OIL! Ah, lovely!

Good Things

Our return trip from the UK went superbly and seamlessly, despite it being a looooong day that began at 4:30am (without any shut-eye for me), and ended at 9:00pm locally (but 2am for us). We drove our rental car to Birmingham airport along the dark and twisty rain-soaked roads, without a hitch or traffic jam. What a pleasant surprise it was to be offered a cup of coffee at the Europcar drop off.

Fortified, we made it through the day, caught all our connections timeously and had excellent service through AirFrance - Dale asked if they had red wine with his lunch selection, and they responded with "but of course, this IS AirFrance!" I requested white wine and was informed that they also had champagne, which I readily accepted. I think this was the first time I've managed to sleep on a plane, so exhausted was I after a sleepless night before our departure (or was it the glass of bubbly that did it?).

AirFrance is a great airline - it was smoothly and efficiently run, with very good stewards (so what if they didn't repeat EVERY announcement in English - was that the one telling us to evacuate the plane???)

French countryside as we approached Paris

In mid flight we got the great news that there were 2 offers on our house in MA that we've been trying to sell since September. 

The one we've accepted is underwritten, and will close as early as Jan 13, 2026! So, so happy! Check out those magic words - Under Contract ♥️

Good friends generously picked us up from the bus station, and then once home, we discovered that another Good Samaritan had thoughtfully shoveled our driveway and path to our front door (it had snowed while we were away). How lucky are we!

Aah, what a lovely, satisfying experience we had - so many good things in one day!

... now for some sleep ...